


The Devil and the Angel

by orphan_account



Series: Marvel Soulmate AUs [3]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Post-Season/Series 01, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 01:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8268131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Matt watches Fisk go down and it all seems unreal to him. He knows he should be relieved, he should finally be able to breathe again and he should be proud of what they accomplished, but he isn’t. He’s just tired. And then, one night, he hears a girl with an angel's voice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The song quoted in the beginning is "Say When" by The Fray.

Matt watches Fisk go down and it all seems unreal to him.

He knows he should be relieved, he should finally be able to breathe again and he should be proud of what they accomplished, but he isn’t. He’s just tired.

All he wants is to hide himself in his apartment and sleep and not talk to anyone for days, because he feels like everything they lost and sacrificed in bringing Fisk down wasn’t worth it, but Foggy won’t have it. Foggy’s all cheerful and happy and relieved and he drags him and Karen to Josie’s to celebrate, and because he’s his best friend and he doesn’t want to lose him, not again, Matt doesn’t protest.

He regrets it the second he enters the bar. Everything is too loud and too much and he wants to curl up in a ball and press his hands to his ears and not hear or smell or taste or feel anything ever again. He holds his breath as he lets Foggy guide him to a free table, but he can still taste the cheap alcohol in his mouth, hear the slurred voices and fast heartbeats of countless people and feel the hot, thick air on his skin.

Karen vanishes towards the bar to get drinks as soon as they’ve taken their seats and Foggy’s talking excitedly, about how now Fisk’s behind bars everything will be alright again and they’ll have lots of clients and Hell’s Kitchen will become a safe place once more, and Matt just nods along absentmindedly, because he’d really like to be as optimistic as Foggy, but he’s seen – and done – too many horrible things for that.

The sudden guitar music registers at the back of his mind, but he doesn’t pay too much attention to it. That is, until he hears the voice and all his senses immediately focus on its source.

The voice is soft and female, the heartbeat belonging to it is steady and oddly calming, and the woman it belongs to smells like vanilla and strawberries, a weird contrast to the usual smell in Josie’s bar. She is singing, and the words tear right into Matt.

_“I see you there, don’t know where you come from_

_Unaware of the stare from someone_

_Don’t appear to care that I saw you, I want you_

_What’s your name, cause I have to know it_

_You let me in and begin to show it_

_We’re terrified, cause we’re heading straight for it, might get it”_

Matt doesn’t know the song, much less why this woman with the angelic voice is singing in a bar like Josie’s. All he knows that suddenly all the other sounds and smells and feelings torturing him are drowned out by the sweet voice.

_“You’re in the song playing on the background_

_All alone, but you’re turning up now_

_And everyone is rising to greet you, to meet you_

_Turn around, and you’re walking toward me_

_I’m breaking down, and you’re breathing slowly_

_Say the words, and I will be your girl, your girl”_

He forces his attention away from the voice long enough to interrupt Foggy with a question. “Who’s singing, Foggy?”, he asks with a raspy voice.

Foggy stops mid-sentence, obviously surprised by his sudden question, before he looks up in a movement Matt can barely detect and answers: “I don’t know. Some girl. I think I’ve seen her around before.” His smirk is audible in his voice as he adds: “Why, you like her?”

Matt swallows hard before mumbling: “She has a nice voice.”

His friend seems to deem this answer sufficient, because he just continues talking, but Matt isn’t listening anymore. He’s listening to the girl.

_“Say when_

_And my own two hands will comfort you_

_Tonight, tonight_

_Say when_

_And my own two arms will carry you_

_Tonight, tonight”_

* * *

 

From there on, Matt comes to the bar whenever he can spare a few hours.The girl isn’t always there, but when she is, he sits at his table in a corner and gets lost in her voice, and for a few, precious minutes she makes him forget all the terrible things that are always happening around him.

And for the first time since he became the devil of Hell’s Kitchen, he thinks of his soulmark again. He allows himself to dream, imagines that the beautiful, cursive handwriting curling around his bicep he hasn’t seen since the accident belongs to the girl, that she will one day say those words to him – although he doesn’t dare imagine the exact situation – and everything will be just perfect.

Silly fantasies, that’s what they are, the dreams of a child full of hope that hasn’t seen all the messed-up crap he has. Matt knows that all too well, but he still can’t keep himself from hanging out at Josie’s bar almost every evening. He still can’t keep himself from needing to hear her voice, even it’s just for a few bittersweet minutes.

* * *

 

When he finally talks to her, he’s later than usual and she’s already leaving when he arrives at the bar. Their arms brush briefly as she walks past him, and for a few moments, he stands frozen in place, completely enchanted by her smell filling the air around him, before he makes a decision in a split second.

He stands in front of the bar, focusing his senses as hard as he possibly can, until he finds her familiar heartbeat between all the others. But something is wrong. It’s too fast, too irregular, and before he even knows what he’s doing, he has dropped his cane and is running towards the sound.

It’s not too long before he can hear her voice over the sound of her rapid heartbeat. She’s begging someone to leave her alone, promises she won’t tell anyone, and Matt runs faster, anger and an irrational panic boiling inside of him.

He comes to a stop in front of a small alley, and he immediately takes in the situation. She’s right there, just a few meters in front of him, fear radiating off of her in waves, and someone – a man, smelling like dirt and sweat and alcohol – is holding her against the wall, snarling words that make Matt’s mind burn with anger.

“Let her go.”

His voice is calm, revealing nothing of the turmoil inside of his head, and she notices him before the man does. Her heart skips a beat – he can’t tell if it’s fear or relief – while the man just laughs.

“What’re you gonna do ‘bout it, huh?”, he says, his voice slightly slurred. “Do yourself a favor and just lemme and my girl here have some fun.”

Something snaps inside of Matt’s head the moment he calls her his girl, and he acts without thinking. In a matter of seconds, he has the man pinned against the cold wall of the alley, his hand around the creep’s neck.

“Unless you want me to snap your neck right here, get out of here immediately and don’t even think about touching her again.”, he says, still dangerously calm, and suddenly the man’s cocky demeanor is replaced by fear. He twists free of Matt’s grip and then he can hear his hasty footsteps getting quieter and quieter until there’s nothing left of him but his smell lingering in the air.

He takes a deep breath and turns around to the girl who’s still standing with her back pressed against the wall. He cocks his head in a useless effort to make it appear like he’s looking at her before he asks: “Did he hurt you?”

Her heartbeat skyrockets at this, and he doesn’t know why, but then she speaks, and his own heart skips a beat. “Hey there, soulmate.”, she says. “Just in time.”

Matt can’t move. He can’t breathe. All he can do is to think “it’s her, it’s her, oh god, I found her” over and over again because this woman has just said his words, in the voice he’s been listening to almost every evening for the past few weeks.

When he finally finds his voice again, he says the first thing that comes to his mind. “I hoped it would be you.”

She laughs, a small, suppressed laugh that still makes his heart skip another beat, and then, suddenly, she’s throwing herself at him and he barely manages to open his arms for her. Her smell is everywhere, and her skin feels soft against his, and he just buries his face in her hair and whispers: “I found you. I finally found you.”

“I’m sorry.”, she says slightly uncomfortable, when she steps out of his embrace after a few seconds that feel like an eternity. “I didn’t mean to be so… straight-forward. It’s just… you saved me. How did you even do that?”

Matt has to suppress the urge to pull her close once more before answering: “I am… let’s say, a complicated person. Maybe we should not talk about this here?”

She nods, her heart still beating a little too fast in her chest. “Right. You’re right.” He can feel the heat radiating off of her face as she blushes slightly and asks: “Dinner?”

Matt smiles, and somehow he knows that she is smiling as well. “I’d love that.”, he says, and she steps closer to him once more. “Great.”, she says. “I’m Penny, by the way.”

Her hand slips into his, and he holds onto it a little too long, simply enjoying the feeling of her soft, small hand against his big, calloused one, before finally speaking.

“Matt.”, he says. 

* * *

 

Half an hour later, they are sitting in a small restaurant just a few blocks away from Josie’s. None of them has said more than a few words yet, but Matt has been holding Penny’s arm the whole way – not that he needs it, he just likes the feeling – and she has let it happen, her head sometimes coming to rest on his shoulder while they’re waiting at a traffic light.

Now they’re sitting here, and Matt finally musters up the courage to ask the question that has been bothering him almost all his life really. “Can I ask you something?” “Sure.”, she says, and with his voice quiet and wavering, he asks a question he is somehow afraid to hear the answer to. “Do you mind? That I’m… well, blind, I mean.”

Penny takes a sharp breath and Matt tenses, bracing himself for the answer that is to come, but then she says: “No. I don’t. I mean, I’ve kinda known you’d be blind my whole life.”

Confused, Matt cocks his head. “How?”, he asks, and instead of saying something, she just takes his hand and gently guides it to her right forearm. There are dots engraved into her soft skin, and it takes him a few seconds before he realizes what they are. Letters. Words. The words “Did he hurt you?” marking her skin in…

“Braille.”, he says incredulously. “It’s Braille.” He’s heard of some lucky blind people whose soulmates have their words tattooed in Braille, but these people have all been blind since birth, and he’s never considered himself lucky anyway. Yet here he is, his soulmate next to him with her beautiful voice and her pleasant smell and her soulmark tattooed in Braille so that he can actually feel that she belongs to him.

“Yeah.”, she says, her smile audible in her voice. “You know how long it took me to learn to read Braille? Ages.”

He smiles, too. “You’re still the first sighted person I met who can read it.”

Penny chuckles. “I believe I’m also the first sighted person you met who’s your soulmate.”

They both laugh at that, her laugh filling the air like music, and then she takes a breath and he can feel her gaze on him. “So.”, she says. “Tell me about you.”

He does. He tells her everything. About the accident and his heightened senses, about his Dad and Stick, about Foggy and Karen and their office, and about Fisk and the devil and the things he does at night. Because she’s his soulmate, and she deserves to know everything there is to know about him.

She doesn’t say a word while he’s talking, and when he’s finished, he waits anxiously for her to react, to say something, to reject him – because, really, he could understand if she did so – but she just takes his hand and squeezes it reassuringly.

“You’re a hero.”, she whispers, and Matt almost believes her.

* * *

 

It’s long past midnight when they finally leave the restaurant.

Matt insists on accompanying Penny home – he won’t let her walk through Hell’s Kitchen at night alone, especially not after the circumstances they met under – and her hand slips into his almost naturally.

They both keep talking the whole way, Matt enjoying the sweet sound of her voice in the cold air and the way he can feel her gaze on him when he’s talking, and he’s almost disappointed when she stops abruptly and says: “There we are.”

Matt doesn’t let go of her hand, and she doesn’t seem to mind, because instead of pulling away, she steps so close to him he can feel her breath on his face.

“Matt?”, she says, he voice barely more than a whisper.

“Yeah?”

She hesitates, then she asks: “What can you actually tell about everything around you? I mean, right now?”

He takes a deep breath, taking in her scent filling the air around him, before he starts talking. “I can tell that we’re standing in front of a seven-story building. I can tell that there’s a woman watching American Idol in the second story. I can tell that there are two boys fighting about something three streets away. I can tell that there is a coffee shop around the corner that’s just now closing up.”

He stops and gently, very gently, raises his hand and touches her face. Her skin is soft under his calloused fingers and he can feel the dimples on her cheeks as she smiles at him.

“But nothing of this matters.”, he whispers, his voice raspy. “Because I can also tell that you’re shorter than me and you’ve washed your hair this morning and your shampoo smells like strawberries. I can tell that you heart is speeding up in you chest. I can tell that you’re smiling right now. And I can tell that I really, really want to kiss you.”

Her breath hitches and her heart skips a beat and then she says: “Well, what are you waiting for?”

* * *

 

The next morning, he bursts into the office almost an hour too late.After him and Penny finally managed to let go of each other last night, he couldn’t stop thinking about the way her lips felt on his, and now, he’s tired and happy all at once.

He can feel Karen watching him as he slips out of his coat and folds his cane.“Long night?”, she asks, and he just shrugs. “Sort of.”, he says.

Foggy, who has just stepped into the doorway of his office, jumps in, his smirk audible in his voice. “I assume you met a woman and had a lot of fun?”

Matt smiles. “I had, but not the way you probably think.”

Foggy and Karen are obviously confused, so Matt hesitates for a moment before he adds: “I met my soulmate.”

He can hear their sharp intakes of breath, and then Foggy starts talking, words pouring from his mouth like a waterfall. “You… you met your soulmate? That’s great, Matt! Who is she? Tell me everything about her.”

Matt smiles again. “Well, her name is Penny.”, he says. “She teaches English literature at Columbia, her aunt owns a bar and she sings there in her free time.”

Foggy sighs. “It’s the girl from Josie’s bar, right? The hot one? Of course you get a smoking hot soulmate. That’s just your luck.” Matt can’t suppress a laugh. “So she’s hot, yeah?” He can almost feel Foggy rolling his eyes at that.

“Please. As if you couldn’t tell.”

* * *

 

Four and a half years later, Matt wakes to the sound of Penny’s voice next to him.

She’s singing a lullaby, gently rocking the small bundle in her arms back to sleep, and a smile creeps across Matt’s lips as he listens to the two other heartbeats in the room. Penny’s, calm and steady and familiar, and his daughter’s, fast and fluttering and incredibly beautiful.

“I love you.”, he whispers.

He can hear the smile in her voice as she answers: “I love you too, Matt.”

And for the first time, Matt really thinks that all the things he sacrificed were worth it.


End file.
